Friday, 26 June 2015

Never Pass Up the Chance to have Lunch with a Neuroscientist

Carlos Davidovich

I had lunch with Carlos Davidovich recently. Carlos is a 'neuromanagement' expert, medical doctor, university professor and leadership coach. We met at a networking event a couple of months ago and promised to get together soon.Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system and how the brain impacts behaviour and how we think. For a few years now, the change management community has been enamoured by neuroscience because it provides a new lens through which to understand why people do what they do. Influencing people to align with and support positive change is our business. The application of neuroscience discoveries has helped people adopt new ways of thinking and behaving to improve performance at work. For change leaders, it has added to their toolkit of practices and approaches used to communicate and enable change. Also, its research-based insights on how the brain works has provided credibility and a cool factor to change.Carlos and I talked about the importance of a positive future vision when communicating change and how this form of storytelling needs to paint a picture in which people can see themselves doing meaningful work. This is a must for someone to consider supporting it over time.We also discussed how understanding the workings of the brain can help people take on new mindsets and behaviours that lead to greater performance. Successful change has a lot to do with creating the right environment to support these changes.Leadership coaching, a passion for both of us, was the crescendo point of our conversation. We traded stories of how to best help leaders lead change based on what has worked and not worked in our careers.Time flew and we felt our conversation was cut short by our afternoon commitments. We would have to continue our discussion about human nature another day. As I rode the subway back to my office, I wrote notes on our conversation. Most were insights on how and why people do what they do. A couple were opportunities to partner in the future. I underlined them knowing they would involve meaningful work in the future.Phil